Lower Your Hospital Bad Debt With These 4 Tips
Friday, June 11th, 2010Hospital bad debt is one of the main reasons for more hospital closings across America. Hospital administrators are confronting increasing costs associated with treating more and more Americans with little to no health insurance. As more are using hospital emergency rooms to treat minor to serious illnesses, hospitals are finding it hard to recoup these costs.
Doctor’s offices are also seeing a decrease in patients with health insurance, as these illnesses are going untreated until they get far more serious. This results in much higher medical costs, since many of these illnesses are minor and preventable if treated earlier.
Its been found around the country that many of those patients are under-insured or recently unemployed. As the recession deepens, the number of patients able to cover the costs associated with hospital treatment is decreasing.
Patients don’t usually think about all the expenses and equipment costs connected with their treatment. They also don’t consider how the medical facility will pay the wages of all the staff during their time in the hospital.
With a lack of adequate debt collection strategies in place, many hospitals are delaying purchasing much-needed diagnostic equipment. Other hospitals are laying off personnel, while still others will probably have to close their doors unless they find ways to recoup hospital bad debt.
Here are 4 tips for reducing or recovering hospital bad debt:
1. Making Payment Arrangements
Many people fear larger debts, as paying off large amounts of money seem impossible to overcome. If your hospital or facility create a payment plan, patients can make smaller more manageable payments, and hospitals can create positive cash flow and recover some of their bad debt.
2. Clearly Stated Payment Policies
As part of your internal collections procedures, patients should be aware of your payment policies. As long as regular payments are received on time, there isn’t a problem. Once patients become delinquent in their payments, you need to state clearly that full payment will become due. If delinquencies continue, patients need to know that they will be forwarded to third party collection agencies to recover the bad debt.
3. Offer Financial Counseling
Providing patients with the option of financial counseling can improve the partial repayment rate and reduce the total amount of bad debt that would otherwise be written off. Financial counseling can also help patients to find ways to re-think their budgeting priorities so that theyre more able to discover ways to resume making up their payment plans.
4. Debt Collection Agencies
If you have continued delinquent patient accounts, with them making no attempts toward making payments or arrangements, you should consider hiring outside collection agencies to recover these bad debt accounts.
Debt collection agencies are able to help recover any delinquent hospital, medical clinic, or doctors office bills from your patients in a professional, timely manner.
David P. Montana has been a renowned industry expert, business consultant and author in collection agencies services for thirty years. He provides additional valuable tips and information on hospital bad debt and medical debt collection.